832 research outputs found
Countdown to 2010: Can we assess Ireland’s insect species diversity and loss?
peer-reviewedThe insects are the most diverse organisms on this planet and play an essential role in ecosystem functioning, yet we know very little about them. In light of the Convention on Biological Diversity,
this paper summarises the known insect species numbers for Ireland and questions whether this is a true refl ection of our insect diversity. The total number of known species for Ireland is 11,422.
Using species accumulation curves and a comparison with the British fauna, this study shows that the Irish list is incomplete and that the actual species number is much higher. However, even with
a reasonable knowledge of the species in Ireland, insects are such speciose, small, and inconspicuous animals that it is diffi cult to assess species loss. It is impossible to know at one point in time the
number of insect species in Ireland and, although it is useful to summarise the known number of species, it is essential that biodiversity indicators, such as the Red List Index, are developed
Rhinovirus protease cleavage of nucleoporins:perspective on implications for airway remodeling
Human Rhinoviruses (RV) are a major cause of common colds and infections in early childhood and can lead to subsequent development of asthma via an as yet unknown mechanism. Asthma is a chronic inflammatory pulmonary disease characterized by significant airway remodeling. A key component of airway remodeling is the transdifferentiation of airway epithelial and fibroblast cells into cells with a more contractile phenotype. Interestingly, transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β), a well characterized inducer of transdifferentiation, is significantly higher in airways of asthmatics compared to non-asthmatics. RV infection induces TGF-β signaling, at the same time nucleoporins (Nups), including Nup153, are cleaved by RV proteases disrupting nucleocytoplasmic transport. As Nup153 regulates nuclear export of SMAD2, a key intermediate in the TGF-β transdifferentiation pathway, its loss of function would result in nuclear retention of SMAD2 and dysregulated TGF-β signaling. We hypothesize that RV infection leads to increased nuclear SMAD2, resulting in sustained TGF-β induced gene expression, priming the airway for subsequent development of asthma. Our hypothesis brings together disparate studies on RV, asthma and Nup153 with the aim to prompt new research into the role of RV infection in development of asthma.</p
Experimental determination of superconducting parameters for the intermetallic perovskite superconductor ${\text {MgCNi}}_3
We have measured upper-critical-field , specific heat C, and
tunneling spectra of the intermetallic perovskite superconductor MgCNi
with a superconducting transition temperature K. Based
on these measurements and relevant theoretical relations, we have evaluated
various superconducting parameters for this material, including the
thermodynamic critical field (0), coherence length (0),
penetration depth (0), lower-critical-field (0), and
Ginsberg-Landau parameter (0). From the specific heat, we obtain the
Debye temperature 280 K. We find a jump of
=2.3 at (where is the
normal state electronic specific coefficient), which is much larger than the
weak coupling BCS value of 1.43. Our tunneling measurements revealed a gap
feature in the tunneling spectra at with 4.6, again larger than the weak-coupling value
of 3.53. Both findings indicate that MgCNi is a strong-coupling
superconductor. In addition, we observed a pronounced zero-bias conductance
peak (ZBCP) in the tunneling spectra.
We discuss the possible physical origins of the observed ZBCP, especially in
the context of the pairing symmetry of the material.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Scholarly Tracks in Emergency Medicine
Over the past decade, some residency programs in emergency medicine (EM) have implemented scholarly tracks into their curricula. The goal of the scholarly track is to identify a niche in which each trainee focuses his or her scholarly work during residency. The object of this paper is to discuss the current use, structure, and success of resident scholarly tracks. A working group of residency program leaders who had implemented scholarly tracks into their residency programs collated their approaches, implementation, and early outcomes through a survey disseminated through the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) list-serve. At the 2009 CORD Academic Assembly, a session was held and attended by approximately 80 CORD members where the results were disseminated and discussed. The group examined the literature, discussed the successes and challenges faced during implementation and maintenance of the tracks, and developed a list of recommendations for successful incorporation of the scholarly track structure into a residency program. Our information comes from the experience at eight training programs (five 3-year and three 4-year programs), ranging from 8 to 14 residents per year. Two programs have been working with academic tracks for 8 years. Recommendations included creating clear goals and objectives for each track, matching track topics with faculty expertise, protecting time for both faculty and residents, and providing adequate mentorship for the residents. In summary, scholarly tracks encourage the trainee to develop an academic or clinical niche within EM during residency training. The benefits include increased overall resident satisfaction, increased success at obtaining faculty and fellowship positions after residency, and increased production of scholarly work. We believe that this model will also encourage increased numbers of trainees to choose careers in academic medicine.ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17:S87–S94 © 2010 by the Society for Academic Emergency MedicinePeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/79229/1/j.1553-2712.2010.00890.x.pd
The plight of the enigmatic southern resident killer whales: Have we done all we can to recover these icons of the Salish Sea?
Southern Resident killer whales recognize no boundaries but frequent the coastal waters of southern British Columbia (Canada) and northern Washington State (USA). Having acknowledged their conservation plight, the two respective national governments have afforded this distinct and much-valued population the status of ‘Endangered’ under their respective endangered species laws. Divergent natural resource management regimes, endangered species legislation, and marine use profiles in the two nations have at times limited a concerted conservation push for these killer whales. However, much has been learned over the past 20 years about the three primary threats to their recovery - diminished prey (primarily Chinook salmon), underwater noise, and high levels of industrial contaminants. This research has, in turn, led to a number of steps in the two jurisdictions to recover the SRKW and improve their habitat. This panel will review past successes and failures in the quest for killer whale recovery, and contribute to a forward-looking agenda that addresses a notable and timely opportunity: ‘What more can we do to recover SRKW?’. The panel will encourage attendees to reflect on constraints and opportunities on the path to recovery. The session will provide a safe place for ‘outside the box’ ideas where boldness and innovation are encouraged to address the challenges facing the species in this transboundary region
Electric Dipole Moments in PseudoDirac Gauginos
The SUSY CP problem is one of serious problems in construction of realistic
supersymmetric standard models. We consider the problem in a framework in which
adjoint chiral multiplets are introduced and gauginos have Dirac mass terms
induced by a U(1) gauge interaction in the hidden sector. This is realized in
hidden sector models without singlet chiral multiplets, which are favored from
a recent study of the Polonyi problem. We find that the dominant contributions
to electron and neutron electric dipole moments (EDMs) in the model come from
phases in the supersymmetric adjoint mass terms. When the supersymmetric
adjoint masses are suppressed by a factor of \sim 100 compared with the Dirac
ones, the electron and neutron EDMs are suppressed below the experimental bound
even if the SUSY particle masses are around 1 TeV. Thus, this model works as a
framework to solve the SUSY CP problem.Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures; typos are corrected; accepted for Phys. Lett.
Trends in seasonal influenza vaccine uptake during pregnancy in Western Australia: Implications for midwives
Background: Antenatal influenza vaccination is an important public health intervention for preventing serious illness in mothers and newborns, yet uptake remains low. Aim: To evaluate trends in seasonal influenza vaccine coverage and identify determinants for vaccination among pregnant women in Western Australia.
Methods: We conducted an annual telephone survey in a random sample of post-partum women who delivered a baby in Western Australia between 2012 and 2014. Women were asked whether influenza vaccination was recommended and/or received during their most recent pregnancy; women were also asked why or why they were not immunised.
Findings: Between 2012 and 2014, influenza vaccine coverage increased from 22.9% to 41.4%. Women who reported receiving the majority of their antenatal care from a private obstetrician were significantly more likely to have influenza vaccination recommended to them than those receiving the majority of their care from a public antenatal hospital or general practitioner (p \u3c 0.001). In 2014, the most common reason women reported for accepting influenza vaccination was to protect the baby (92.8%) and the most common reason for being unimmunised was lack of a healthcare provider recommendation (48.5%).
Discussion: Antenatal influenza vaccination uptake is increasing, but coverage remains below 50%. A recommendation from the principal care provider is an important predictor of maternal influenza vaccination.
Conclusion: Antenatal care providers, including midwives, have a key role in providing appropriate information and evidence-based recommendations to pregnant women to ensure they are making informed decisions. Consistent recommendations from antenatal care providers are critical to improving influenza vaccine coverage in pregnant women
Mixing-induced CP violating sources for electroweak baryogenesis from a semiclassical approach
The effects of flavor mixing in electroweak baryogenesis is investigated in a
generalized semiclassical WKB approach. Through calculating the nonadiabatic
corrections to the particle currents it is shown that extra CP violation
sources arise from the off-diagonal part of the equation of motion of particles
moving inside the bubble wall. This type of mixing-induced source is of the
first order in derivative expansion of the Higgs condensate, but is oscillation
suppressed. The numerical importance of the mixing-induced source is discussed
in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and compared with the source term
induced by semiclassical force. It is found that in a large parameter space
where oscillation suppression is not strong enough, the mixing-induced source
can dominate over that from the semiclassical force.Comment: 19 pp, 2 figs, 1 table, some comments added, to appear in
Eur.Phys.J.
Schopenhauer on the Rights of Animals
I argue that Schopenhauer’s ascription of (moral) rights to animals flows naturally from his distinctive analysis of the concept of a right. In contrast to those who regard rights as fundamental and then cast wrongdoing as a matter of violating rights, he takes wrong (Unrecht) to be the more fundamental notion and defines the concept of a right (Recht) in its terms. He then offers an account of wrongdoing which makes it plausible to suppose that at least many animals can be wronged and thus, by extension, have rights. The result, I argue, is a perspective on the nature of moral rights in general, and the idea of animal rights in particular, that constitutes an important and plausible alternative to the more familiar views advanced by philosophers in recent decades
Aspects of Split Supersymmetry
We explore some fundamental differences in the phenomenology, cosmology and
model building of Split Supersymmetry compared with traditional low-scale
supersymmetry. We show how the mass spectrum of Split Supersymmetry naturally
emerges from theories where the dominant source of supersymmetry breaking
preserves an symmetry, characterize the class of theories where the
unavoidable -breaking by gravity can be neglected, and point out a new
possibility, where supersymmetry breaking is directly communicated at tree
level to the visible sector via renormalizable interactions. Next, we discuss
possible low-energy signals for Split Supersymmetry. The absence of new light
scalars removes all the phenomenological difficulties of low-energy
supersymmetry, associated with one-loop flavor and CP violating effects.
However, the electric dipole moments of leptons and quarks do arise at two
loops, and are automatically at the level of present limits with no need for
small phases, making them accessible to several ongoing new-generation
experiments. We also study proton decay in the context of Split Supersymmetry,
and point out scenarios where the dimension-six induced decays may be
observable. Finally, we show that the novel spectrum of Split Supersymmetry
opens up new possibilities for the generation of dark matter, as the decays of
ultraheavy gravitinos in the early universe typically increase the abundance of
the lightest neutralino above its usual freeze-out value. This allows for
lighter gauginos and Higgsinos, more accessible both to the LHC and to
dark-matter detection experiments.Comment: 50 pages, references added, typos correcte
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